Police in Lagos have arrested a staff of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, NSPMC, for allegedly being in possession of fake N900,000 (nine hundred thousand naira) in N1,000 denomination.

The suspect, who identified himself as Osakpolo Igbinosa from Edo State, said the fake naira notes were not actually printed by him but were the ones that were yet to reach the final stage of printing by NSPMC where he works as a material security officer.

He said he had been perpetrating the criminal act since 2010 until he was recently arrested by crack detectives attached to ‘Area N’ Command Headquarters Ijede in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos.

According to him, he had gone to a nearby bureau de change operator to have the money exchanged for American Dollars, when the Hausa operator raised an alarm and alerted the police.

Igbinosa said: “The notes are not fake per se. But the difference is that they have not reached the final state of production and so there are no serial numbers on them.

“I did not print them contrary to what I am hearing. These notes are genuine ones and were printed by my company, but I stole them because I needed to offset some debt.”

Lagos State Police Pubic Relations Officer, DSP Ngozi Braide, told newsmen that the suspect was arrested on September 19 at 4pm.

She said: “One Abdulraham Abdullahi of Benson Plaza Ikorodu alerted policemen attached to Shagamu road that one Osakpolor Igbinosa of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company located on Victoria Island with staff number MSC./4503 transacted a business of exchange of fake N900,000 for three thousand US Dollars.

“The suspect was promptly arrested and during interrogation, he confessed to being a security man attached to the NSPMC and that he stole the money from the office.”BY albert akpor